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A King’s Tale

Burger King (henceforth BK), is the second largest fast food hamburger restaurant in the world with strong brand equity. Its growth model is not capital intensive, since 90% of its restaurants are owned by franchisees. All in all, the company has strong financial performance. On the other hand, the company is heavily concentrated in the US; about 65% of operations take place in one market, which means that it is heavily depended on this large market. It would be best for BK to decentralize its spread so to speak, in order to protect itself from any mishaps in the US market, and resultantly, would end up protecting itself. Burger King does not have enough corporately owned stores which means that it heavily relies on franchisees to execute its brand promise and this in turn means that it is not self efficient in executing its brand promise; thus suggesting that the company needs to be more corporate. Further ideas could include new product development, particularly around breakfast since it is still lagging in this field behind McDonalds. Burger King can keep building its brand through ad campaigns, such as ‘The Whopper Virgins’. Another important factor that Burger King has already undertaken is its expansion into emerging markets. As a global company, BK is fortifying itself from any mishaps in its “motherland” and is actually gaining more markets and more revenues. However, this brings with it new threats such as the advertising flops that took place in India where a lot of locals were insulted with the placement of a Hindu goddess, Lakshmi, over ‘The Whopper’. Burger King needs to carefully study its positioning in new, emerging and foreign markets in order to protect its “next big move” from crumbling. Additionally, Burger King needs to address other issues as well, such as changing consumer habits towards healthier food choices; this could be considered a threat, and if Burger King does not get healthier, or at least create the illusion of being healthy, then it will lose a lot of market share on its home turf.